Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1887-09-02
LAUREL CAMP

"Oh boys, how wish l were going
with you!" and dainty Bess Fleming
perched herself disconsolately on the arm
OF the lounge in what her brothers called
their 'boudoir, and gazed with big. visit
full gray eyes on the animated scene before
her.
The festive preparations are indeed al
most enough to make one wish one had
been born boy. Floor, chairs and table
are covered with a choice but varied col
lection of hunting boots, fishing tackle.
entomologist's paraphernalia of waxen
headed pins, chloroform bottles and but
terfly nets, favorite authors, hammocks,
and other evidences of a fright royal
good time The masculine occupants
of the room were all SO very deeply en-
crossed that their envious sisters plain
tive wish fell on almost unheeding ears.
Hal muttered: W-wish you couldu'
Tom gazed at her through the micro
scope glass he was polishing, with an eye
enormously enlarged thereby, and smiled
i'll conscious masculine superiority; and
only good natured Steenie paused in his
struggle with his knapsack (Which SEEM
ingly declined to accommodate his
blankets. a work on anatomy a gossamer
long to say with genuine brotherlv good
will:
and you should go in a minute, Pop
ity-it would be worth ten seasons to you
if it were not for Val Graham"
Wal Graham! Who is he? Let him
stay at home, then. To make coffee in
dear little kettle swung on three sticks
to sleep in hammock and be outdoors
all summer!' cries Miss Fleming, enthusi-
astically. "Oh, l will go! What's the
matter with Mr.. Graham! Is he one of
your fossilized professors who would
petrify simple maiden? l don't care
what he is, you need not imagine l would
find time to look at him. l magnani-
mously) won't mind him Bit
But, b-b-bless you, my child" ejacu-
lated Hal, energetically, ''it's not ques-
ton of whether you wouldn't mind Val.
The boot is on the other leg. It's Val
would mind you. There's some roman
tic story about his being brought up by
an uncle who had been cruelty treated by
some lovely fiirt. Youthful affections
tramped on, and all that kind of thing.
Takes to the life of hermit and edu-
Gates the ingenious Valentine to regard
with horror the whole female sex. Val
would sooner face a 'wenomous wiper
than a woman, and l am confident that
If he suspected we meditated such treason
as the introduction of the dreaded ele-
ment, he would flee to the uttermost
parts of the earth rather than go with
us; and he the prime suggester of the
camping scheme too. Lastly and finally,
how could such luxurious little lady
rough it with a lot of boys among the
jungles of New York statel 1t is impossi-
ble.''
"Oh, you can say impossible; but /
could go and you would take me, if it
were not for that odious creature! How
l hate himN' cried Bess, stormily.
"a letter for you, Mr.. Stephen" and
the dignitied butler steps solemnly over
the debris and looks with stern disap-
proval at the disordered room.
From Val himself, is it not, Steenie?"
asked Tom.
Eyes. Too bad he can't go, after all
attack of malarial fever-knows YOU
will have a jolly time. Almost desperate
me, reads Steenie, disjointedly.
'Now am going!" and Bess starts up
impetuously.
iiON tdl YOU!
"Youll see. I'll take Martha to take
care of me. I'll be ready in an hour,
Martha and her budgets included" and
Bess vanished like a small whirlwind,
leaving the trio too much astonished to
do aught but stare at each other in silence.
Did she accomplish it? OF course; what
other result was possible to so much
energy and spirit BY the time the
others had finished their remarkable mas
culine packing Bess bubbling over with
merry anticipation, was soothing the
dazed Martha, who was vibrating between
a feeling of gypsyish delight at what
seemed to her a mad escapade and gloomy
presentiments of inevitable rheumatism.
The scene shifts to the wilds of the en-
pire state and a camp established in their
depths, This is no mere fashionable
tabernacle in the wilderness but real
camp, with amateur cooks, with spicy
hemlock bed, and with smoke blackened
kettle hanging over swapping fire, the
smoke of which curls lazily upward,
making misty the delicate tracery of the
waving trees against the soft summer
sky, and the hammocks swinging like
huge cocoons between the trees, inviting
TO drowsy repose.
A few yards away an unseen mountain
brook tumbles its ice cold water into the
rocky river, and the two sing together in
low monotone, telling of fern fringed
pools and gliding trout, Through arch
ways cut in the glossy laurel thicket can
be seen the paths that the feet of the
straying campers have already worn to
the woodland haunts beyond.
But the glory of the camp is the struc-
ture variously known as the "house, "
"shanty," or Laurel lodge" Built
against a little knoll, its supports living
trees, its roof of slabs (Which the busy
little river obligingly strews along its
banks from lumber regions farther
north slopes almost to the ground at the
back. Its sides are a thickly woven mat
OF hemlock boughs, held in place by